bell was answered she ordered a hot bath and hot coffee immediately.
The maid supposed she had slept there, and seemed surprised; but as her
mistress offered no explanation she could make no remark; and so the
matter ended.

But I do not think Ideala suffered much on that occasion. Her strong
young womanhood saved her somewhat--and there was a charm for her in
the beauty of the night and the novelty of her position, which a less
healthy organism would not have appreciated, had it been able to
discover it--at such a time.




CHAPTER X.


Ideala had been married eight years, and two months after that night
the long-delayed hope of her life, which she had begun to believe was
beyond hope, was at last realised. Her child was a boy, and her joy in
him is something that one is glad to have seen. But it was short-lived.
I do not know if her husband were jealous of her happiness, or if he
thought the child was more to her than he was, or if he were merely
making a proposition, by way of experiment, which he never meant to
carry into effect--probably the latter. At all events, he went to her
one day when the child was about six weeks old, and told her he thought
she must give up nursing him.

The mother's nature was up in arms in a moment. I suppose she had not
quite regained her strength, for she had been very ill, and, being